Mobile software applications are very common today in smartphones and tablets and can be purchased in Internet stores such as Google's Play Store. Another type of software application is an interactive TV application presented to the user on a video screen (which may be a TV, a tablet, a smartphone, a PC, etc.) that is typically related to the content played on the screen at the same time. For example during a TV broadcast of a basketball game a TV may present an icon for an interactive TV application that if selected provides statistics about the players taking part in the game, and an interested viewer may launch it during the game. Such interactive applications are offered for example by Comigo Ltd. under the name “WatchApp™ applications” as supplementary items to its interactive Set-Top Boxes.
Usually software programs are not limited regarding the time of their use. For example, after one buys a word processing program he may use it whenever he likes. But the concept of limiting the use of software according to time is well known in the art—software developers sometimes release demo versions that expire after a pre-defined time interval since their activation. This allows potential buyers to test the program with no commitment but eliminates the risk (to the developer) that the user will keep using the tested item without ever buying it.
Another type of time-limited software is software that is licensed for use on a yearly or monthly basis and expires once the licensing period is over.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a prior art of a computing device comprising processor(s) (e.g. microprocessor(s)) 110 and storage 120 within which both data 140 and software is stored. The software may include operating system software 130 and one or more software applications 240A . . . 240N. The data 140 may include data employed by the operating system software 130 (e.g. provided as a “configuration file”) or user-application data (e.g. an address-book for an email application or one or more “document” files for a word-processing program) accessed by one more software application(s) 240. Examples of operating system software includes but are not limited to Linux, Unix, Windows®, Mac OS® (e.g. OS X®), Android®, and iOS®. Software applications are clearly not the same as operating system software 130 though software applications may invoke operating system functionality (e.g. by calling an API).
For the present disclosure, storage 120 refers to any combination of volatile (e.g. RAM) and/or non-volatile (e.g. magnetic storage or flash memory) memory or storage.
Optionally, computing device 100 may include one or more of (i.e. any combination of) a system clock 150, a display screen 320 (e.g. a touch-screen), a user-input device (e.g. a keyboard, mouse, touch-screen, joystick, etc) and a communications module 290 (e.g. for communicating with other computing devices).
Computing device 100 may have any form factor including but not limited to mobile phone, laptop, and desktop.